"What most people don't know is that Kerry's death was a suicide," she said in a tearful floor speech.

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Acker, who was 63, "shouldn't have had a care in the world," she said, adding that he was financially secure, with a loving family and dozens of friends.

"He loved them all, and yet, incomprehensibly, he seemingly did not grasp the toll his absence would have on those who loved him," she said.

"Why am I sharing this very personal story? Because we all need to recognize that mental health issues know no boundaries. I do not want anyone else to suffer as he suffered, nor for any family to suffer as mine has over the past month."

I‘m sharing the story of my recent loss because we need to recognize that mental health issues know no boundaries. Behind the statistics are grieving partners and spouses, parents and children, siblings and friends. We must act - removing the stigma cannot just be a slogan. pic.twitter.com/3w9Ctue8dW